Beautifying Your Home's Exterior

by
Guest
on Feb 28, 2010

There are lots incentives why homeowners desire an improved home exterior. Maybe you want to sell your home in the future, are bored with the old look or wish to add equity to your home. Painting, landscaping and new window shutters will give your home fantastic results.

Exterior paint can flake off because of dreadful weather conditions or abuse from the sun. Picking out the paint for your house is an exhilarating process. Remember that if your home is of a specific architectural design, then you may want to choose paint that is authentic to the residence's historical background. Flip through books and magazines to find out colors that were conventionally used for your home's architectural design. Have old paint chips analyzed to find the initial color. There is no mandatory rule when choosing a color. Nevertheless, if your want to sell your home in the future, stick to conservative colors or your home's original paint color.

There are three different shades to pick when purchasing paint. You need a color for the siding. Then, you must choose one color for the eaves, moldings and trim. Thirdly, you should decide on a color for doors, window sashes and railings. You may want to use complimentary colors or paint with contrasting trim to highlight the fine craftsmanship of your home. Light colors will make your home seem bigger and darker colors will give a home a rustic look.

When deciding how to landscape your house, first, flip through books to find landscaping plans that go with your personal taste and style. Then sketch a plan of your yard and incorporate all constructed elements such as fences, swimming pools and gazebos. Decide what kind of lawn you would like to have. Do you want rock or grass? Would your like your own vegetable garden or do want only ornate plants? Many yards mix herbs, vegetables and fruit trees with ornamental plants. Go to your nursery and ask about the plants of your region. A nursery will be able to tell how much work is involved when taking care of certain plants. You may want a polished look or an English garden look. On your plan, draw flowerbeds, walkways and trees. Be imaginative in this process because improving your yard can be enjoyable and the options are almost infinite.

Window shutters can become ugly when they are cracked, tearing and decaying. There are four types of shutters, which consist of louvered, raised panel, board and batten and Bahama. Shutters are made of either wood or polyvinyl. Numerous homeowners choose wood shutters over polyvinyl, because of polyvinyl has tendency to crack. Wood shutters come in different types of woods including pine, western cedar, cypress, California redwood, which all have great benefits and downfalls. Regardless of the fact that cypress and cedar will not rot, it is always important to protect the wood with a sealer.

Make a plan for how you want your house to appear. Then create a budget of how much you are willing to spend. There are plenty of ways to spruce up a home's appearance that are affordable and rewarding for both you and your home.